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Silverstone NT06 CPU Cooler Review
Cooling/CPU Cooling by jmke @ 2006-10-10
Silverstone latest compact heatsink is light weight, features 120mm fan support and promises to provide excellent cooling for your hot running CPU. Let´s see how it does.
Test Results & Conclusive Thoughts
Test Results
The NT06 is hovering over the memory banks, providing additional cooling to this area
For comparison I’ve included the Thermalright SI-120 which is quite similar in design but is higher than the NT06 (90mm vs 78mm without fan). The added height of the SI-120 made it perform better than the Thermalright XP-120 (63mm height).
Using the included fan controller I set the 120x120x38mm fan to spin at high speed (2679rpm), medium speed (1740rpm) and low speed (1164rpm); then I swapped it out with my reference Papst 120 fan, I used the included screws which also worked perfectly to install this lower profile fan.
The included fan can be extremely noisy, but also extremely silent, so you’re sure to find a suitable speed setting to fit your noise tolerance level. At high speed the NT06 performance comes close to that of the SI-120, but when paired with the same Papst fan it trails by 4°C, not the end of the world. Compared to the XP-120 (seen here), there’s only a 1°C difference. The shrouded NT06 does add a bit of extra noise compared to heatsinks without a shroud, but it’s not much (~ 1dBA).
Overclocking the CPU stresses even the best heatsinks out there, the NT06 is still able to cool the CPU with its stock fan but it has to spin at full speed to keep the system running stable, making it a noisy solution. With the Papst fan CPU temperatures don’t change (compared to stock) but PWM temps increase by 6°C. The NT06 now trails the SI-120 by 6°C (XP-120 result was 67°C).
Conclusion
The NT06 is a capable heatsink & fan solution which will flourish in a case were space is restricted. The included fan can be quite noisy or dead silent when its speed is turned down with the included fan controller, the performance/noise balance is not the best out there but it’s far from bad.
The NT06 allows free orientation (in 90° steps) on all platforms and this gives it a lot of flexibility when installing it onto the CPU. Motherboard removal is required as you have to make use of the included custom back plate.
Placed on an overclocked and hot CPU the temperatures will be high but still acceptable, combined with a silent fan it will keep the current generation of AMD/Intel CPUs running stable.
PRO
Compact design, flexible installation (orientation-wise)
Good performance with silent fan at lower CPU output.
Very quiet with Papst 120mm fan and stock fan at low speed
Fair price ~€/$50
CON
Stock fan at high speed is very noisy
Need seperate bracket for AMD AM2 Compatibility
Update 26/10/2006: Silverstone send me more information on the NT06's AM2 compatibility, you can read more about it here in our forums.
I like to thank Silverstone for sending over the product for testing;
Questions/Comments: forum thread
The NT06 is hovering over the memory banks, providing additional cooling to this area
For comparison I’ve included the Thermalright SI-120 which is quite similar in design but is higher than the NT06 (90mm vs 78mm without fan). The added height of the SI-120 made it perform better than the Thermalright XP-120 (63mm height).
Using the included fan controller I set the 120x120x38mm fan to spin at high speed (2679rpm), medium speed (1740rpm) and low speed (1164rpm); then I swapped it out with my reference Papst 120 fan, I used the included screws which also worked perfectly to install this lower profile fan.
The included fan can be extremely noisy, but also extremely silent, so you’re sure to find a suitable speed setting to fit your noise tolerance level. At high speed the NT06 performance comes close to that of the SI-120, but when paired with the same Papst fan it trails by 4°C, not the end of the world. Compared to the XP-120 (seen here), there’s only a 1°C difference. The shrouded NT06 does add a bit of extra noise compared to heatsinks without a shroud, but it’s not much (~ 1dBA).
Overclocking the CPU stresses even the best heatsinks out there, the NT06 is still able to cool the CPU with its stock fan but it has to spin at full speed to keep the system running stable, making it a noisy solution. With the Papst fan CPU temperatures don’t change (compared to stock) but PWM temps increase by 6°C. The NT06 now trails the SI-120 by 6°C (XP-120 result was 67°C).
Conclusion
The NT06 is a capable heatsink & fan solution which will flourish in a case were space is restricted. The included fan can be quite noisy or dead silent when its speed is turned down with the included fan controller, the performance/noise balance is not the best out there but it’s far from bad.
The NT06 allows free orientation (in 90° steps) on all platforms and this gives it a lot of flexibility when installing it onto the CPU. Motherboard removal is required as you have to make use of the included custom back plate.
Placed on an overclocked and hot CPU the temperatures will be high but still acceptable, combined with a silent fan it will keep the current generation of AMD/Intel CPUs running stable.
PRO
Compact design, flexible installation (orientation-wise)
Good performance with silent fan at lower CPU output.
Very quiet with Papst 120mm fan and stock fan at low speed
Fair price ~€/$50
CON
Stock fan at high speed is very noisy
Need seperate bracket for AMD AM2 Compatibility
Update 26/10/2006: Silverstone send me more information on the NT06's AM2 compatibility, you can read more about it here in our forums.
I like to thank Silverstone for sending over the product for testing;
Questions/Comments: forum thread
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